Champion, an opera in jazz written with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Michael Cristofer, is Blanchard’s first opera. Co-commissioned by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Jazz St. Louis, the opera is inspired by the true story of prize fighter Emile Griffith – an immigrant from the Virgin Islands who claimed the title of World Welterweight Champion in a fatal 1962 fight which transformed him into a tragic hero and left the two-year old son of his opponent Benny “The Kid” Paret, without a father.

Champion begins over 40 years later, on the morning Emile is to meet his opponent’s son, now a grown man, for the first time. Flooded by memories of his career, his checkered personal life, and a terrible attack that exposed his greatest personal secret, Emile embarks on the universal journey of any hero — finding himself in the face of his greatest tragedy.